MFL

What does French look like at Easington C of E

Primary School?

INTENT

Subject Leader – Miss O’Neil

Pupils are taught to be resilient when learning a second language whilst manipulating their knowledge of language conventions in order to develop an understanding of French. Working together, they will develop a deeper understanding of how French language and culture is comparable to English.

 

 Learners will:

• Develop resilience in language learning as well as enjoyment of it through challenging and progressive lessons.
• Acquire language learning strategies for memorisation and retrieval as well as for listening, reading and understanding.
• Develop the skill of how to use a bi-lingual dictionary to decode unfamiliar language.
• Be able to manipulate language to speak or write sentences creatively using prior knowledge of grammar and key features; with and without a dictionary.
• Have a sound grasp of the key phonemes of the French language and their corresponding graphemes and be able to apply this knowledge when speaking, listening and reading aloud.
• Recognise some of the language patterns of French and how these differ or are similar to English.
• Appreciate and be able to copy the sound of the language at text level through songs, stories and rhymes.
• Have a deeper understanding of cultural differences and similarities.
• Demonstrate substantial progress in learning French and work towards or meet the targets of the KS2 Programme of Study for Languages. Therefore, being prepared for the requirements of the KS3 curriculum.

 

Year 1 – Skills and Knowledge

Skills:

• Listen, read and show understanding of single nouns.
• Listen, read and show understanding of a simple question. Respond using a single word.
• Write and translate single nouns.

Knowledge:

• Awareness that French phonics is not the same as English phonics.
• Awareness of the geographical location of France and the capital city.

 

Year 2 – Skills and Knowledge

Skills:

• Listen, read and show understanding of single words including nouns, verbs and adjectives.
• Listen, read and show understanding of short phrases in texts as well as songs and rhymes with scaffolding and support.
• Recognised familiar set questions and respond with set phrases using scaffolding and support.
• Write and say some simple sentences using some adjectives, with support and the resilience to attempt it without.
• Write and say simple expanded noun phrases to describe people, places and things with a language scaffold and some confidence to attempt without. For example: la belle pomme, le grand homme.
• Recognise some graphemes and pronounce them in familiar words with support but increasing confidence to try independently.
• Read aloud short, familiar phrases with increasing confidence by repeating the teacher.
• Use strategies to memorise some basic vocabulary.
• Join in with the actions of familiar songs, stories and rhymes
• Join in with the words of familiar songs, stories and rhymes.

Knowledge:

• Awareness of different word classes in French and can identify them in English.
• 1^st and 2^nd person conjugation of avoir and être.
• Aware of masculine and feminine and can identify them based on the determiner.
• Awareness of tu and vous but uses tu form.
• Awareness that letters in French can make a different sound to English.
• Creating questions using a scaffold with rising intonation.
• Awareness of French speaking countries in Europe and the wider world.

 

Years 3 and 4 – Skills and Knowledge

Skills:

• Listen, read and show understanding of single words including nouns, verbs and adjectives.
• Listen, read and show understanding of short phrases in texts as well as songs and rhymes.
• Recognise a familiar question and respond.
• Ask and answer several simple and familiar questions.
• Write and say a sentence with single familiar words and a conjunction (et, mais, car) with support and confident to attempt it without.
• Write and say a simple phrase to describe people, places and things with a language scaffold as well as be confident to do the same without support. For example: Le grand homme avec les cheveux noirs.
• Recognise some graphemes and pronounce them in familiar words.
• Read aloud short familiar sentences using knowledge of phonics.
• Use strategies for memorising vocabulary.
• Find the meaning of word in a bi-lingual dictionary.
• Use a bi-lingual dictionary to find the meaning or translation of a word.
• Join in with the actions of familiar songs, stories and rhymes.
• Join in with the words of familiar songs, stories and rhymes sometimes from memory.

Knowledge:

• Awareness that different word classes exist in French and know some vocabulary for nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, adverbs and conjunction.
• 1^st and 2^nd person pronouns with irregular high frequency verbs.
• Awareness that there are 2 groups of nouns in French.
• 2 forms of ‘you’ in French.
• Awareness that letters in French can make a different sound to English and silent letters are frequent. For example: l’hôpital.
• Formation of a question with rising intonation.
• Pattern of questions with question words.
• Awareness of silent letters. For example: l’hôpital.
• Awareness of elision. For example: l’homme, l’église. (the man, the church).
• Rules for making nouns plural.
• Making a sentence say not.
• Position of colour adjectives in a sentence.
• Awareness that French is spoken in other countries besides France.
• Some French speaking countries in Europe.

 

Years 5 and 6 – Skills and Knowledge

Skills:

• Listen, read and show understanding of more complex familiar phrases and sentences in texts.
• Listen, read and show understanding of more complex sentences using familiar and unfamiliar words.
• Ask and answer more complex familiar questions.
• Engage in a short conversation using familiar questions and express opinions.
• Write and say a more complex sentence to describe people, places and things with a language scaffold as well as be confident to do the same without support.
• Write and say a more complex sentence to describe people, places and things manipulating language with a bi-lingual dictionary as well as be confident to do the same without support. Begin to replace ‘car’ with the more complex structure ‘parce que’.
• Read aloud more complex familiar sentences using knowledge of phonics.
• Pronounce unfamiliar words in a sentence with a high degree of accuracy using phonic knowledge.
• Use a bi-lingual dictionary to find the meaning of nouns in the plural, adjectives in agreement and conjugated verbs.
• Follow the text of a familiar rhyme, song or story and identify the meaning of the words.
• Read aloud the text of familiar songs, rhymes and stories.

Knowledge:

• Indefinite article and gender of nouns.
• Plural nouns.
• Rules of agreement of adjectives in the singular and plural.
• Position of majority of adjectives in a sentence.
• 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd person singular and 3^rd person plural of an irregular high frequency verb.
• Development of understanding of formation of questions.
• 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd person singular pronouns and 3^rd person plural pronouns and verb conjugation for regular -er verbs.
• Formal use of ‘you’ with regular and irregular high frequency verbs.
• Formation of a question with rising intonation.
• Pattern of questions with question words.
• Partitive in singular and plural.
• Definite article.
• Formation of a relative clause.
• For example: l’homme, l’église. (the man, the church).
• Concept of liaison. For example: les amis [lez -amis]
• Traditional songs and rhymes.

 

Implementation

• The lessons are to be: 20 minutes in length for Year 1, 30 minutes in length for Year 2/3, 30 minutes in length for Year 4/5 and 45 minutes in length for Year 5/6.
• The lessons are designed to be progressive and build on prior learning, moving from word to sentence level over the course of study.
• In Year 1 the basic greetings, colours and classroom nouns are covered along with some basic cultural information about France.
• In Year 2/3 same structures and grammatical knowledge are revisited in both cycles, however, the vocabulary is different.
• In Year 4/5 the same structures and grammatical knowledge are revisited in both cycles, however, the vocabulary is different.
• In Year 5/6 some of the same structures are revisited but only by completing the two-year cycle will all the knowledge and skills be covered.
• The lesson activities are challenging, varied and interactive and develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.
• Interactive whiteboard resources with audio support are provided to give clear examples of pronunciation.
• The choice of vocabulary ensures exposure to all the key phonic sounds and ability to build sentences using grammatical knowledge.
• Staff use a fluent speaker for training purposes and can seek advice on good pronunciation and grammar.
• It is expected that formative assessment in each lesson informs the planning and teaching of subsequent lesson plans.
• Children will have the opportunity to makes links with other cultures during their RE lessons and PSHCE events.

 

Impact

• Children will develop a semantic and procedural knowledge; Children will have a sound understanding of how language differs in the world around them.
• Children will be able to initiate conversations in French with native and non-native speakers.
• Evidence of speaking activities can be gathered by making audio recordings.
• The use of the ‘transition document’ is used to relay information to feeder secondary schools about prior language learning.
• Based on the evidence of achievement and progress, teachers can inform parents/guardians of this, using report statements which relate to the expected targets of each year group under the headings ‘emerging, expected and exceeding’.
• To enhance the impact on enjoyment and intercultural understanding, children from each class have ‘un sac français’ with a range of activities from cooking, reading, listening to French music and watching French TV along with information about the unique culture of each region. This will allow them to immerse themselves in French culture.
• To enhance the impact on enjoyment and intercultural understanding, children in Year 5/6 will have a French pen-pal in Versailles.
• All of the above provides evidence that the ‘statements of intent’ are met.